Barker's gift launches animal ethics course at Drury

Steve Koehler
News-Leader

A $1 million endowment from game-show legend Bob Barker will establish the country's first undergraduate course on animal ethics at Drury University.

Before a standing-room-only crowd of students and faculty — as well as several dozen dogs and a few cats — Barker handed over a check to Drury President Todd Parnell on Monday.

"I'm flattered beyond words for so many of you to be here," said Barker, a Drury alum and longtime host of "The Price is Right." He spoke to the audience packed into a large room in the Trustee Science Building in the middle of Monday's ice storm.

The money, Parnell said, will give Drury students "the means to an education dominated by the most prestigious universities in the country."

Several law schools, including those at Harvard and Stanford, have also received gifts from Barker to fund the study of animal rights.

"It's going to be so interesting for you," Barker told students. "My hope is that the model is duplicated across the country."

The semester-long course will begin in either the fall of 2009 or the spring of 2010. It's an interdisciplinary class that will examine animal rights through various areas including religion, the environment, criminology, philosophy and biology.

Wendy Anderson, associate professor of biology, said her portion of the course will explore several areas, including the environmental impact of confined animal feeding operations; the impact of exotic animals becoming pets or being placed in zoos; what happens when pets are released into the ecosystem; and the impact on vegetation and other animals.

Other parts of the course will look at laws protecting animals, how animals are regarded in religion and advances that have been made to minimize animal testing.

"It's very exciting. It's something that's uniquely Drury," Anderson said. "I plan on going to the classes every day myself. I'm only teaching for two weeks, and I want to see what the other (faculty) are teaching."

The enthusiasm of the faculty impressed Barker.

"I had high hopes for this course and after visiting with the faculty, my hopes are boundless now," Barker said. "It's going to be known as a wonderful, wonderful course."

The idea for the course came from Patricia McEachern, associate professor of French at Drury and an animal-rights advocate. She talked with Barker while he was on campus to deliver Drury's commencement address in May.

"Bob Barker is a personal hero to me. He's done more for animals than any human being on the planet. He is a modern-day St. Francis of Assisi," she said.

McEachern said Barker called her office this fall and left a message asking her to call him at home.

"I couldn't do that," she initially thought. But she eventually called and the two spoke often as they developed the course that would include classroom work, appearances by special speakers and conferences on the subject.

"We hope that whatever area we go into, we develop an empathy for animals and animal rights," she said.

McEachern admitted Monday that she was so excited after dropping Barker off at his hotel room Sunday night that she forgot to take the check. Thankfully, Barker reminded her to take it.

She kept the check on her nightstand and gave it to Parnell Monday at the press conference.

Jessica Kleekamp, a junior studying English, will likely graduate before the course is available. But she showed her support Monday by carrying a sign that resembled the podium contestants stand behind on Barker's game show.

It read: "1,000,000. Animal Rights" and on the other side it read: "Have Your Pet (Spayed) or Neutered."

"I've watched Bob since I was a little kid," Kleekamp said. "I like him as both (animal rights advocate and game show host). I knew him first as a game show host, but I think he's really great at animal rights, too."